Author's note: Right, i need a BETA for this story, so if anyone is interested, e-mail me, you get to see the chapters before anyone else.

Chapter V - London: Cadillacs, Non-convertibles and Car Radios

It was late when they got to London. it was also storming out something awful so Buffy quickly retrieved the gray rain coat she had brought with her and threw it over her shoulders, it helped keep out the wet but it did nothing for the chill. Spike noticed this and lead the way quickly out of Heathrow airport and off to a small warehouse a few blocks away. Even with the precautions that they took both managed to get pretty drenched.

They stopped large metal pull up door; it seemed that this was a storage place and that Spike had kept some thing here. He pulled up the metal door and gestured that she step inside. they space they walked into was bigger than Buffy imagined, the warehouse was empty save for one large mass in the middle of it that could have been anything from a dinette set or an obscenely large refrigerator.

"Lights?" she questioned of the vampire behind her. It hit her then, he had made her go through the door first. What was up with that? Was he just not man enough to face things first? Did he need Buffy to go and make sure all the badies were gone before he could go?

She was jerked out of her thoughts when Spike switched on the single naked light bulb that lit the place, and suddenly she knew what was under the cloth, it was a car. Spike pulled off the tarp.

Correction, it was a nice car. Gleaming black with windows that looked to be painted over with absolute care not to ruin the surrounding paint, not hastily sprayed on like the old de Sotto. It was tinted, not pained and could've belonged to any human.

"This is so much nicer then the one you have in Sunnydale." she commented.

Spike froze then turned to look at her strangely. It was the first time that she had mention Sunnydale since they had left the place three weeks ago. He had thought that it was an unspoken agreement that they not speak of it. He carefully loaded their thing into the boot of the car.

"You're right for once, pet." he said, his face going back to the nonchalant mask he always wore. "This here's a Cadillac."

Though most car information would have just gone straight over Buffy's head, she wasn't stupid enough not to know what a Cadillac was. Her eyes widened and she looked at the car with new reverence.

"Wow!" she said, and then her face went sheepish. "This is an expensive car, right?"

Spike stared at her and then shook his head.

"Americans." he muttered under his breath. He opened the passenger's side door and gestured for her to get inside, Buffy eyes him dubiously, and she half expected it to explode as soon as she set foot in it, like an anti-slayer device. "Well, what the bloody hell are you waiting for, slayer?" spike demanded after a few minutes of stillness. "We didn't come all this way just to look at it."

At that Buffy got in, it did not, however, wipe the confused look off her face. A second later, Spike entered the driver's side of the vehicle and he turned on the throttle. Driving though the doorway and out into the night. For a while there was no other sound other than the rain pattering on the windshield. Finally Buffy turned to Spike and asked him outright.

"What is with that?"

Spike felt himself sigh; he had been anticipating this question since they touched down in London.

"You see pet." he said gently. Turning to look at her. Buffy stared at him, she really had not expected an outright answer, and she figured she would be dealing with evasive Spike. "Here in England we drive on the left side of the road not the right. Now before you ask questions, I have no bloody idea why-"

Buffy looked shock for a few minutes and then burst out laugh. That stopped him; he just sat there glancing from the road back to Buffy. When she caught his eyes she could practically see the confusion swirling around in them. The look on his face was strange, almost cute; Buffy had never seen Spike confused before. Of course Spike had a very predictable range of emotions, anger, annoyed-ness, happiness, annoying-ness and sarcasm.

"Uh, Spike," she said when she finally managed to get her giggles down, "that's not what I meant."

In an instant, Spike was back.

"Yeah?" he asked, chuckling and turning back to watch where they were going. "Well, then, slayer, fire away."

"What is with all the 'you go first' and 'I'll hold open doors for you', Spike?" she asked bluntly, deciding there was no real way around the question. "Are you-like, scared that something's after you, because that is the only thing I can come up with."

Spike arched an eye brow.

"What do you mean, pet?"

"You hold open the doors for me, Spike." she said exasperatedly, she wasn't even sure why it bothered her so much. "You hold open the car doors, even. You don't think I notice that you wait for me to eat before you begin? Do you think someone want to poison you? Or booby-trap your car? Or shoot stakes at you as you leave the building?"

As she spoke, Spike felt his mask drop, his eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. Had the situation been different Buffy would have found it comical, however her own eyes widened in alarm when she took in his look of horror.

"What?" she demanded. "What is it?" she really should have known. No matter how far she ran she would always be the slayer. "Who's coming?"

Again, he looked confused for a totally of a second before he shook his head, his face carefully unreadable yet again.

"No one pet." he said, running a hand through his hair.

Buffy stared at his hand. She just realized that Spike's hair wasn't slicked back where is supposed to be. She guessed that the rain had washed away whatever he used to keep them there. In its place, his hair around his head in a halo of pale tousled curls.

"What is it now?" he asked exasperatedly.

She pointed at his head, he rolled his eyes and was about to turn back to the road when he froze.

"bugger." he swore, he had just realized that William's poncy curls were back. Bloody rain.

Spike.

With a 'fro.

Like a young Justin Timberlake.

She was too shocked to laugh.

And that was when it hit her.

He hadn't been putting her first because he though he was going to die. He opened doors for her and let her begin eating before he started because he was being polite.

Polite Spike.

And she thought that she had seen everything.